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After another drubbing at the hands of Ohio State, Jim Harbaugh has a major move to make

Connor O'Gara

By Connor O'Gara

Published:


Ohio State shredded the Michigan offense and rolled to yet another victory in “The Game.”

That’s a boring first sentence to write these days. Like, really boring.

Why is it boring? Because you can copy and paste that sentence every year that Don Brown’s defense faces Ohio State. Wash, rinse and repeat. In the fourth year of trying to slow down the Buckeye offense, Michigan’s defense failed again.

That happened despite the fact that we heard Brown finally made the long overdue adjustment of daring to play some zone instead of exclusively press-man coverage with a single high safety. If there were changes made in Brown’s defense, it was irrelevant by game’s end.

Michigan’s offense was once again forced to play a perfect game, and it did not. A fifth straight loss for Jim Harbaugh against the Buckeyes will undoubtedly bring on the “he’ll never beat Ohio State” takes. I’m not on board with that fully. I’d tweak that sweeping declaration slightly.

“Harbaugh will never beat Ohio State with Brown running his defense.”

And yeah, it’s time for Harbaugh to make a change. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Continuing to trust Brown to beat Ohio State is insanity. It’s curbing Michigan’s ceiling.

Harbaugh has to fire Brown or risk yearly reminders of insanity.

Is Brown the only person to blame for Michigan’s continued struggles? No. Of course not. He didn’t fumble a ball deep in Ohio State territory on a potential game-tying touchdown drive like Shea Patterson did. He didn’t pick up an offsides penalty on a punt that extended an Ohio State drive like Khaleke Hudson did.

Michigan didn’t do the little things to beat Ohio State. That much we know.

But it didn’t do the big things, either. Like tackle J.K. Dobbins, or get in the face of Justin Fields, or cover Garrett Wilson. The Michigan defense didn’t have any answers for Ohio State. Again. A year after letting Dwayne Haskins carve up the surging Wolverines for 6 touchdown passes, Fields had 4 of his own. There were coverage breakdowns, missed tackles and linemen who couldn’t get off blocks.

One staff made halftime adjustments. The other didn’t. Well, at least not adjustments that mattered.

Stop me if you’ve heard that before about one of Brown’s defenses, which has a habit of dominating inferior competition and getting exposed by elite teams.

It’s interesting because that’s the exact thing that Harbaugh gets criticized for. That makes sense considering he’s the head coach and all. But his offense actually isn’t the problem anymore. It’s a defense that let up an average of 59 points the last 2 years. I mean, Michigan let up 62 points as a favorite last year and 59 points at home this year.

Oh, and here’s the other thing. Ryan Day isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. There’s nothing we’ve seen from that matchup that suggests it’s going to change. And if you’re a Michigan fan still under the belief that Brown is the guy and that things would be different if not for that J.T. Barrett spot, well, I’m sorry. We’ve had 3 years of evidence since then to suggest it’s not working. That includes watching Dwayne Haskins step in for the injured Barrett as a redshirt freshman and proceed to shred the Wolverines in Ann Arbor in 2017.

It’s never good when you’ve got people routinely calling out the lack of modernization of Brown’s defense. Urban Meyer did it earlier in the year. You can bet that crowd will continue to grow after that showing.

Some might call this a “heat of the moment” take. Brown is up for the Broyles Award as one of the top 15 assistants in the country. He’s established a culture at Michigan that was missing in the pre-Harbaugh days. Brown’s demeanor at practice is a different kind of intense, which is saying a lot considering who his head coach is.

But Brown doesn’t have the answer to beat Ohio State. His defenses, which are plenty talented, cannot defend an offense with explosive weapons on the outside. And it might not be just that. Let’s not forget about the pounding that Wisconsin put on the Wolverines earlier in the year, or what we saw against Florida last year in the Peach Bowl.

Here’s Harbaugh’s reality. Whether talking heads realize it or not, Warde Manuel isn’t firing Harbaugh. The odds of him leaving for the NFL remain slim, too. But Harbaugh is in denial if he doesn’t think a change needs to be made. He made the big change by hiring Josh Gattis to overhaul the offense. Right now, Harbaugh needs someone that’s capable of stopping the bleeding against Ohio State.

Easier said than done, that is. The good news? It’s Michigan. There won’t be any justification needed to spend big on a defensive coordinator. And if there is, well, all Harbaugh has to show Manuel and the Michigan Board of Regents is a replay of the 4 Ohio State games that Brown has been a part of.

Just kidding. He doesn’t have to do that. They all lived it. Everyone lived it. That’s why #FireDonBrown was trending on Twitter on Saturday afternoon. Michigan fans have seen enough. The question is whether or not Harbaugh has, too.

A bold decision awaits him. That is, if Harbaugh wants to dodge another year of insanity.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.